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Antony Mann As every great chess player who runs a Chess School will tell you, enrolling your child in (preferably their) Academy will do wonders for their self-esteem, powers of concentration, focus and personal hygiene, as well as giving them a head start in that…

Victor Kahn Many games are lost, by amateurs and masters alike, on account of poor development. The main cause is loss of time from either launching a premature attack or capturing pawns in the opening. When the hasty attack has petered out or when a…

The Independent (10 April 2014) reported that ‘Forty of the nation’s leading writers have sent the Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling, protest postcards with the name of the book they would most like to send to a prisoner – if they still could –…

Sarah Hurst It is very gratifying to live long enough to receive an acknowledgement that you have done something right. As some readers may recall, in 1998 I campaigned for a boycott of the chess Olympiad in Kalmykia in the wake of the murder of…

A big family too – one that’s grown from 60 member countries in 1970 to 185 in 2015. Its vast bawling brood of small and poor satellites has made FIDE the world’s second largest sports body after FIFA. Membership and birth rate aren’t the only…

On the eve of the press conference to announce the Kasparov-Kramnik match, David Levy addressed a remarkable billet-doux to Raymond Keene, his life-long business partner and former brother-in-law. An open letter to Raymond Keene: Raymond, We have known each other for 37 years. We have…

Anna Muzychuk was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2012 and is ranked 4th among the world’s best women players. Born in Lvov on 28 February 1990, she has represented Slovenia in team competitions since 2004. Her younger sister Mariya is an International Master. What is…

Test Your Benko Refutations with Chris Ward Once upon a time there was an opening of great repute advocated by such English favourites as Hodgson, Hebden and Plaskett. Then along came a little-known Soviet player with the tactical flair of Adams, the optimism of…

What is your earliest memory of playing chess? I have quite a few, including the ones my parents have described to me when I grew up, but the very earliest is the recollection of beating some dude a year older than me when at the…

Lev Khariton The attractive countryside of Meudon is a 15-minute train ride from Paris. Here I came to interview Boris Spassky just three days before his 60th birthday. He reminiscences about his life, his chess career, his rivals and friends. Dear Grandmaster, I should…

Andy Lewis A common Arimaa starting position Anyone for a variation on chess? Is chess played out? This concern has been voiced periodically over the history of the game, and the challenges has never been more profound: over-refinement of opening-theory; perfection of endgame technique;…

Sarah Hurst was a regular contributor to CHESS magazine in the 1990s and also edited the British Chess Federation’s newsletter, ChessMoves. Her fine book Curse of Kirsan: Adventures in the Chess Underworld is now available on Kindle at a bargain price. Since 2002 she has been translating…

Why Life Does Not Imitate Chess Part 3: The Visionary Followers of Garry Kasparov on Facebook will have noted that he has taken to styling himself as a ‘politician’. What’s his track record? All chess players will know about his campaign for FIDE president…

This Armageddon-style knockout tournament will take place amid the splendour of the Vladimir Putin Memorial Tearoom, St Petersburg. Play will begin on Christmas Day and continue until one player is left standing. He will be declared the winner and carry off the Prince Salman Bone-saw…

Chess and Early Cold War Propaganda Chess, like many sports, has been used as a political instrument. Files recently released by the National Archives reveal how the Soviet Union exploited chess for propaganda during the early years of the Cold War (1953–1960). In December 1953,…